Reviewing Monsters: Darkest Dungeon, Part 3

The final part of my commentary on Darkest Dungeon monsters, this final part talks about the last one of the four main areas, the Cove, as well as the final dungeon itself, the titular Darkest Dungeon. Without further ado...

Cove: The Pelagic Fishmen

Pelagic Grouper & Pelagic Shaman: The Cove is populated by monstrous fish-men, a reference to The Shadow over Innsmouth, one of the more iconic and popular Lovecraft works, which featured creepy fish-people, and these Pelagic monsters (pelagic is an adjective referring to fish originating from the open sea) are pretty neat! There's always something grotesque about fish and their creepy eyes and open mouths, and putting these weird piranha-style heads on a mostly humanoid body is pretty creepy.

I love that the basic enemy, the Grouper, has a harpoon and a cutlass, making it kind of similar to a pirate of sorts. I have the utmost respect for the Grouper, and compared to the basic "footsoldier" for the bandits, undead, swinefolk and fungus people, the Grouper's in my experience the one that hits the hardest. The Shaman is both a healer and a stress-inducer, and I do like the weird little glowing beard it has and the kooky sea urchin staff it has. All the Pelagic monsters are pure-Eldritch, and they are resistant to Bleed effects.

Pelagic Guardian: The Pelagic Guardian are the heavy-hitters of the bunch, and he's an octopus-based fishman. I'm genuinely not sure what those bizarre dangling tumours hanging down the sides of his face are supposed to be -- egg sacks? Scrotum? They just feel bizarrely odd on an octopus-themed monster. The Guardian acts like a supporting warrior in combat, using that huge, fancy ornate shield to basically buff up and protect the harder hitting but far more fragile Groupers. It's got an anchor or something replacing its right arm, which is neat.

Uca Major: Borrowing his name from the genus of fiddler crabs, the Uca Major is the "big" enemy in the Cove areas, and unless I'm missing something else, the only one. I do like how the Uca Major combines designs of a fiddler crab's prominent large claws with the bulkiness of mudcrabs and the like, and it also has barnacles and random ship parts encrusting its body. Despite being a crab, it's got this genuinely bizarre reptile-mouth which just sort of throws me off. Still looks creepy, though. These giant crabs don't hit hard, but inflict bleed damage, stuns and fucks up your formation, and take a while to bring down. Alone, it's honestly more annoying than terrifying, but when it appears with buddies, it suddenly becomes a pretty considerable threat.

Sea Maggot: Interestingly, the animals we encounter in the Cove are considered "Eldritch", instead of beasts like the Rabid Gnasher or the spiders. The "Sea Maggot" isn't even a maggot, but more of a bizarre sea-snail with a spiky shell and instead of a pseudopod it's got octopus sucker-tips or some shit. I do like the weird implication that these snails are considered "maggots" somehow. 

Deep Stinger: The Deep Stinger could've just as easily been a generic jellyfish enemy, but I do really like that even this already octopus-esque animal gets a bunch of mutations to have its inner arm resemble a mutated octopus tentacle, while the outer 'ring' of tentacles look like the longer tentacles of a squid. It's little details like this that I appreciate. They're not very powerful, but inflict a fuck-ton of effects like stunning, bleeding, debuffs and disease. They're pretty!

Drowned Thrall: Oh god, these fuckers. These are bloated zombies resembling how human corpses bloat up if they're dead at sea, and they're just shown to be utterly pathetic. Unlike the other undead monsters in the game, the Drowned Thrall are pretty fucking weak, but leave them unattended and in exactly two turns it will rush towards your party and blow the fuck up as a human bomb. Pretty fun concept, and a pretty creepy artwork to match. 

Squiffy Ghast: Only appearing in the hard-mode levels for the Cove, the Squiffy Ghast has just such a fun name, and is the only undead pirate to appear in the Cove. Which is a shame, I really wished we had one or two generic undead pirate (undead fish pirate, maybe?) enemies, particularly since one of the Cove bosses is an undead pirate crew. I do like the cheery expression on the Ghast's grinning face as he plays on that violin atop a barrel of rum. The Ghast is unique in that it just jumps around like a madman across the enemy's ranks, while dealing the Horror status on your heroes, demoralizing them with the songs of the dead. 

The Siren: The first boss of the Cove is this huge, mutated mermaid with the most sorry-looking and wretched face, huge webbed claws, and an anglerfish lure. There are many mermaids out there that look pretty and badass, but not the Siren -- she's just so utterly wretched-looking, and apparently she used to be a lover of the Ancestor, but as part of a deal that the Ancestor made with the vile Pelagic creatures for underwater riches (again, a reference to the Shadows over Innsmouth story), the Ancestor threw the poor girl as a sacrifice, and the Pelagics made her "their queen... and their slave". Which carries some really uncomfortable connotations.

In combat, in addition to summoning random Pelagic creatures and unleashing damage upon your enemies, the Siren's biggest gimmick is to temporarily assume the illusion of a sexy mermaid with nipples to take control of one of your party members -- gender notwithstanding -- and you have to fight the Siren and one of your party members. If you kill your party member, he/she dies for real. Once you know what you're doing it's actually pretty simple, but the Siren can utterly stomp an unprepared party to dust by simply playing on her conch and stealing your party members.

Very interesting that the aquatic-themed level doesn't actually have a Cthulhu boss fight, although I supposed that'd be too obvious!

The Drowned Crew: Your Ancestor apparently made a deal with a crew of pirates to gather resources, artifacts and relics, but they began to charge more and more money for funds and to keep your Ancestor's secrets quiet, the Ancestor called upon foul Cthulhu magic to weigh down their anchor to drown the entire pirate crew. And somehow they are transformed into this gigantic undead amalgamation of ships, chains and pirate crewmen.

I really kinda wished that we sort of see more than just the Squiffy Ghast to hint that there are undead pirates involved, but at the same time I also like the implication that the entire pirate crew was bound in place. The gimmick is that the Drowned Crew is the big boss dealing damage, while a small buddy, the Drowned Anchorman, throws the cursed anchor to completely immobilize your of the party members, so it's sort of similar to the Brigand Pounder fight in that you need to get rid of the Anchorman before it does anything. I like the design of the main Drowned Crew, though, and how sometimes it just attacks by having its members throw bottles of rum at your party members. 

The Darkest Dungeon: The Cthulhu People

Brave the horrors of the undying skeletons of the Ruins, the grotesque swinefolk of the Warrens, the shambling fungal wretches of the Weald and the indecipherable pelagics of the Cove, and take down the area bosses, and you slowly gain access to missions to enter the titular Darkest Dungeon, the true source of all the horrors that have been plaguing the town of Hamlet and mutating all of its creatures into horrifying monstrosities that defy good nature. 

Ascended Brawler & Ascended Witch: The main weak enemies in the Darkest Dungeon are the Ascended Brawlers and Ascended Witches, who, unless they attack (as pictured here), just look like palette-swapped versions of the Cultist Brawlers and Acolytes... and then they attack, and they transform into this grotesque, tentacle-encrusted, spike-tipped, eyeball-speckled monsters. The Ascended Brawler looks pretty cool particularly with that massive giant insect-like arm stabbing your prey, and I find the bizarre quintuple-chin deal that the Witch has going on to be pretty hilarious.

Rapturous Cultist: Sort of a counterpart to the Madmen you find in most of the dungeons, Rapturous Cultists are those who embrace the whispers of the "new" god beneath the dungeon, and just have this utterly insane, shit-eating grin on their face while their flesh is slowly being transformed into a mass of tentacle-like veins, red flesh and these beady black eyes. I remembered that I keep mistaking them as Madmen equivalents, when instead they exclusively do supportive things to their allies. Either "guarding" them with an ability called Flesh Wall, or biting himself to somehow heal his allies. These are considered Human/Unholy, so they're at least partially dead. 

Cultist Priest: The higher echelons of the cult worshiping the entity beneath the dungeon has been remade into a new form. And while the Cultist Priest looks like a generic dude in dark robes when not attacking, its true form is quickly revealed in battle and it's pretty creepy! A mass of tentacle-flesh is basically the style of elder-god corruption in Darkest Dungeon's art style, and I do like this bziarre, hunchbacked creature with a giant worm-like head, teeth and gums that jut out, octopus limbs, and random human skulls peppered around its eyeless head. Its alternate attack is "The Finger", which unleashes a giant stabby bony tentacle. I remember them to be pretty fucking annoying.

Also, the Cultist Priest is Eldritch/Beast, so even if it was once human, it definitely isn't now. 

Flesh Hound: Appearing in later ventures into the Darkest Dungeon are the Flesh Hounds, and as it name (if not its visual design) implies, it behaves like a souped-up version of the Rabid Hounds from the Weald. And it's just such a bizarre creature, with an almost bat-like membranous set of legs, two separate spider-legs, a bizarre tumour-encrusted head ending in a Cthulhu tentacle mouth. A pretty horrifying design that's offset by the fact that its attacks are called "Fetch" and "Nibble". 

Polyp: Not to be confused with the actual Flying Polyps from Cthulhu mythos, the Polyp is just... well, another one of the abominations that sprout out of the walls of the Darkest Dungeon. Sort of resmbling a variant of D&D Beholders and other floating heads/eyeballs and the like, I really do like that the Polyp has these bizarre giant bat-like ears, as well as a mouth that splits its face in a pretty weird way with fangs all over it. I don't think there's any particular lore behind this one, it's just one of the many creepy tumour-horror thing within the Dungeon.

Malignant & Defensive Growths: So while it relies mostly on the army of cultists and fleshy horrors to defend it, sometimes the fleshy growths takes over the infrastructure of the dungeon itself, and manifests in these flesh-tentacle-tumour encrusted spiky metal barbs. The Malignant Growth casts stun and bleed effects, while the Defensive Growth guards and heals its allies.

Antibody: Playing to the whole "the dungeon is a giant, twisted fucked-up organism" thing, some of the monsters that sort of replace the Growths in more difficult ventures into the dungeon are called Antibody, and it's this two-mouthed giant stalk with multiple eyes all around it. Despite looking pretty creepy, I actually remembered them being genuinely trivial and are just there to stun your enemy and unable to actually damage your party, relying on allies to finish you off. Considering how annoying every other enemy in the Darkest Dungeon levels are, it's actually a bit of a godsend. 

Shuffling Horror: The first boss you meet in the first Darkest Dungeon mission is the Shuffling Horror, who is a version of the Shambler, and apparently even eldritch beings from beyond space-time aren't immune to being corrupted by the bizarre red flesh-cysts of the dungeon. My feelings about this thing is still pretty much the same as the regular form, but it is pretty cool to re-use one of the more powerful bosses you meet (and most of the time avoid) in the previous dungeons as one of the henchmen of the Big Bad.

Templar Impaler & Templar Warlord: The bosses of the second sojourn into the Darkest Dungeon are these two, which are the buffed-up versions of the Ascended Brawler, where the mutation have turned him into a giant scorpion monster thing. I feel like the mutation feels a bit too "clean" compared to the more metastasis, tumour-like body horror of most of the Darkest Dungeon's denizens? Particularly the Impaler on the right, whose tail and claws are fully chitin, and has neon-green material for the sickle. At least the Warlord's tail is full flesh, Tokyo Ghoul style, with a bunch of poorly-arranged barbs on the tip of the tail. Their attacks mostly involve a fair amount of body horror, including the pretty devastating "Revelation" where they show off the massive eyeball encrusted on their crotch to inflict a fuck-ton of stress on your party. The Warlord also has a bunch of bizarre configurations it turns its tail into. After the quest where the two of them are fought as bosses, weaker versions that have a less-ornate crown are found as regular enemies, known as Templar Snipers and Templar Gladiators.

Pretty cool-looking bosses, all in all, and while giant scorpions are still sort of bland compared to what I expect from a Lovecraft-style game, they're still cool. 

Mammoth Cyst & White Cell Stalk: That's more like it! The Mammoth Cyst is, well, a gigantic tumour within the depths of the dungeon, and it's essentially a giant version of the Polyp that's anchored to a network of messy fleshy tissue, with a cluster of those eyeball-style black spherical things, a huge central eyeball and itty-bitty little tentacles. I don't think I actually ever killed the Cyst, and its level might be the one that my save file is currently stuck at being unable to defeat, and part of it is because the Mammoth Cyst summons these White Cell Stalks -- Antibody recolours that have the ability to warp the Dungeon's dimensions to quite literally teleport your entire party to another part of the dungeon, forcing you to travel and be subjected to a lot more stress and travelling damage as you go around the dungeon. Pretty awesome boss design, though, and a fitting end as the penultimate boss. You really do have the feeling of navigating through a giant organism, fighting the polyps, cysts and antibodies within it until you reach the "central" mammoth cyst guarding the Locus Beacon. I do find it interesting that the monsters mix names that are diseases and human immune system parts.

The Ancestor, Perfect Reflection & Imperfect Reflection: So the revelation at the end of the Darkest Dungeon is that, if you haven't been able to tell from the not-exactly-subtle-by-this-point rantings of the Ancestor-narrator, is that he was the one responsible for unleashing the unspeakable Cthulhu creature into the world from beneath the dungeon, and he basically wants you to "embrace" the cosmic horror, and apparently has discovered that all mankind is part of this ancient horror that is both the creator and destroyer of humanity.

Anyway, the Ancestor's pretty neat as a design, and in the first phase of the fight he basically summons multiple Perfect Reflections (which is exactly the same as him) or Imperfect Reflections, which is a pretty cool, split-in-half monstrosity of flesh glued together. Pretty neat stuff, but honestly it's only as cool because of the plot relevance.

Ancestor & Gestating Heart: The second phase of the fight has the Ancestor be more permanently mutated into a half-flesh-tentacle form, teleporting around his side of the field between these breaks in reality called "Absolute Nothingness" you can't interact. It's basically a relatively simple, if annoying phase, as I gather it, and more of a mercy from the game creators to allow you to heal up. Afterwards, it cocoons itself in a Gestating Heart, which is this gigantic purple tumour with tentacles. Neat? 

Heart of Darkness: The final boss is the Ancestor as he fuses himself with the horror from underneath your mansion, turning himself into a giant, vaguely heart-shaped thing with his human body vaguely consumed into the giant tumout. These are black eyeballs all over it, the Ancestor's hair has gone Super Saiyan, and there's a gigantic creepy row of teeth running on the back side of the Heart. It's the true form of the cosmic horror (its race is "Cosmic" instead of "Eldritch") that has been mutating all the critters and people in Hamlet into these weird fleshy abominations with red tendrils and black beady eyeballs.

Not the most interesting design, but as a giant body horror mixture that an Elder God is trying to use to enter the physical realm, it's still a pretty all right design and apparently fighting this form is pretty damn hard and one of your party members is guaranteed to die. The concept of the Heart of Darkness is pretty neat as far as Lovecraftian Horrors go, being implied that it's the source of all life on the planet as we know it, and we'll return to it in due time, and apparently your family in particular is trapped in this endless cycle of defeating, merging and re-defeating the thing over and over again. I do appreciate the fact that the final boss isn't a Cthulhu clone, although I'm also slightly disappointed that we didn't get one. Oh well.

That's about it for Darkest Dungeon, and I did really, really enjoy my time playing through this game and enjoying all of the monsters. The DLC gives us some really awesome monsters to deal with, so I'll cover that some time in the future as well.